NEW DELHI: Minister of State S Jagathrakshakan who had been moved from Information and Broadcasting Ministry in the reshuffle has been allocated the portfolio of Commerce and Industry.

After the reshuffle on 28 October, Jagathrakshakan had been given the New and Renewable Energy portfolio.

In another change, Minister of State Milind Deora who is MoS in the Communications & Information Technology has also been given the portfolio of Shipping.

New Delhi: Prasar Bharati, India?s public broadcaster, is putting in place plans to increase its revenues.

Aggressive marketing of advertising slots, putting to use spare infrastructure, bringing about an improvement in content, augmenting DTH services and sharing of towers are among the measures being taken by the broadcaster to bridge the substantial gap between its revenues and expenses, according to sources in the broadcaster.

Prasar Bharati, which operates a group of Doordarshan television channels, has always found its revenues to be much less than its expenses. In 2011-12, its revenues were Rs 14.09 billion, just 48 per cent of its operating cost of Rs 28.90 billion.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting S Jagathrakshakan said Prasar Bharati?s revenue generally constituted 40 to 50 per cent of the annual operating cost.

Prasar Bharati?s revenue in 2010-11 was Rs 13.10 billion, 51 per cent of the operating cost of Rs 25.47 billion. In 2009-10, the revenue was Rs 11.76 billion, 43 per cent of the operating cost of Rs 26.828 billion.

The minister said if the government accepts the recommendations on financial restructuring of Prasar Bharati made by a Group of Ministers, it would help the pubcaster to become financially viable.

The ministry has already prepared a cabinet note to bring about financial restructuring of Prasar Bharati that seeks to ensure that all operating expenses are borne from the broadcaster?s own income.

The note is expected to be taken up by the union cabinet for consideration soon after inter-ministerial discussions on it are over.

The note is based on the recommendations of the Group of Ministers Prasar Bharati, which suggested that government non-plan support should be extended for meeting the total expenses on salary and salary-related expenses and augmentation and replacement of capital assets for the five years from 2011-12 to 2015-16.

The GoM had also recommended that accumulated arrears of space segment and spectrum charges up to 31 March 2011 should be waived.

The recommendations of the group of ministers also suggested that all loans extended to the public service broadcaster should be converted into grants-in-aid and interest accrued on the loans should be waived.
 

NEW DELHI: Denying it was attempting to augment its All India Radio?s FM channels before the auction of the Phase III for private FM Radio, the Government today said an amount of Rs 1.42 billion had been sanctioned for AIR FM expansion under the Eleventh Plan.

New transmitters of various capacities were being installed in 130 places throughout the country, including 100 relay transmitters of 100 Watt. In addition, the old transmitters at 34 places were being replaced by new FM transmitters.

 
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting S Jagathrakshakan admitted in Parliament that state government had been asked to allocate land free of cost to AIR for setting up the AIR FM channels.

He said of the 313 cities for which Phase III had been approved, AIR already had FM channels in 153 cities including those in the pipeline. However, it does not have any AIR FM transmitters in the remaining 160 cities, though 50 of these cities will get relay transmitters in the 11th Plan.

Of these 160 cities, land is required at 153 from the state government, and letters had been written to the state governments of 19 states to allocate the land free of cost, the Minister added.

All the 160 cities will have studios with production facilities and a proposal is being framed for inclusion under the 12th Plan.